


Keep You Like An Oath

by stevergrsno (noxlunate)



Series: Happy Steve Bingo Fills [13]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff, Happy Steve Bingo, M/M, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, the barnes family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-08-04 15:53:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16349663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noxlunate/pseuds/stevergrsno
Summary: The kid, sounding possibly more indignant than anyone Bucky’s ever heard before says, “It’s not like I throw the first punch! I just maybe, possibly, throw the second.”Bucky thinks three things:‘Oh shit, that’s my soulmate.’‘Jesus christ, maybe don’t use your face as a fist if you’re gonna punch people.’And‘Oh my fucking god, that’s mysoulmate.’In which everyone is born with the first words they'll hear their soulmates say written on their skin, and of course Bucky and Steve are each other's.





	Keep You Like An Oath

**Author's Note:**

> I've decided the key to titles is to just use a Fall Out Boy lyric when you can't figure out what to call a fic.  
> For the "I never throw the first punch" square on my Happy Steve Bingo card!!

When James Barnes comes into the world it is with words stamped in stark black, blocky and strong across his tiny shuddering chest as he wails.

Winifred Barnes cradles her firstborn son to her, looks at him like he’s a miracle she’s been waiting for and traces soft fingers along the solid lines.

“Oh darling, your life sure is going to be something, isn’t it?”

 

Everyone is born with a set of words. Or at least so they say. Bucky’s sure they haven’t inspected absolutely everyone in the world to see if they pop out of the womb with the phrase that’s going to dictate their entire fucking lives on them, the first words they’ll hear fall from their soulmates lips. Still, it’s generally assumed that absolutely everyone has Words.

Bucky sure as hell has _his._

People like to say you can tell what sort of person you’ll get by the size and shape of your words, where they’re located, how prominent they are.

People say that delicate words, tiny and softly colored and scrawled across the inside of a wrist means you’ll find yourself a quiet delicate girl. Sturdy words in dark brown, solid against a bicep is supposed to mean you’ll have a strong, stable companion.

If Bucky follows that logic his soulmate will be big as fuck and also _loud_ as hell.

The words sit against his chest, spread from shoulder to shoulder in large squared off letters, stark black against his skin.

They’re _present,_ the edges constantly peeking out from under his shirts. God forbid he try to wear a fucking v-neck.

“At least your life will never be boring, darling.” His ma likes to tell him.

“I bet you’ll be completely grey within a year of meeting your soulmate, he’ll stress you out so much.” Becca always says, smiling with the sort of joy that only comes from a sibling’s misery.

Bucky thinks he’ll be going gray just from the stress his words alone give him.

 

Meeting his soulmate goes like this:

Bucky is 29 years old and waiting in line to order his venti triple shot mocha so that he can make it through yet another day of working a job that is slowly sucking his soul away when he hears a redheaded woman in front of him tell some skinny blonde kid “Jesus, Steve, you can’t just punch your problems away,” while prodding at what must be a shiner on the kid’s face.

The kid, sounding possibly more indignant than anyone Bucky’s ever heard before says, “It’s not like I throw the first punch! I just maybe, _possibly,_ throw the second.”

Bucky thinks three things:

_‘Oh shit, that’s my soulmate.’_

_‘Jesus christ, maybe don’t use your face as a fist if you’re gonna punch people.’_

And _‘Oh my fucking god, that’s my_ **_soulmate._ ** _’_

What he says is none of these things. What Bucky says when he meets his soulmate isn’t _any_ of the things he’s always thought he’d say, and is instead _“Holy shit,_ you’re fucking _tiny.”_

Things don’t go incredibly well from there.

 

Steve has always known that when he meets his soulmate they were going to have some _words._

What he hadn’t expected was to be standing in a coffee shop at fuck o’clock in the morning while holding napkins to his soulmate’s nose. The very same nose he’s just broken while waving his arm in the guy’s face and giving the rant he’s been planning since he was six years old and Scott Lang went and read the words _‘Holy shit, you’re fucking TINY,’_ in front of the entire class.

He’s pretty sure first contact is supposed to be _magical_ or some shit like that, and he definitely feels a little dazed and his soulmate’s looking at Steve in a way that Steve can only describe as _dopey,_ but he’s also a little more focused on the fact that this guy is _bleeding._

“Shit, _shit_ _,_ I am _so_ sorry, _oh my fucking god.”_ Steve apologizes, ignoring the sounds of Natasha apologizing to the people in the shop for her best friend being a lunatic.

The man- his _soulmate-_ gently removes Steve’s hands from his face and then just as gently pushes him back a step, “Look, Steve- it’s Steve right?”

And _oh,_ this is what _it_ feels like. Being rejected by your soulmate. Steve’s heard it happens, _everyone’s_ heard it happens, but no one ever really believes it. That’s what’s happening though. Steve’s gone 27 years of his life with his soulmate’s exclamation of surprise on his arm and now he’s gone and _assaulted that same_ _soulmate_ so of course the guy wants nothing to do with him. He doesn’t know whether to cry or to say good riddance.

He’s leaning towards masking the urge to cry by saying good riddance. He’s a _goddamn catch._ So what if he’s small and loud? Some people _like_ that!

The man is still staring at him and Steve is suddenly aware of the fact that he hasn’t answered his question yet.

“Uh.” He says, and then, “Yeah. Yeah. It’s Steve.”

 _“Steve,”_ The man says, sounding strangely delighted by it, “I’m Bucky. And seriously, stop apologizing. This isn’t the first time I’ve had a broken nose, and it probably won’t be the last.”

Which isn’t a rejection. It doesn’t sound _anything_ like a rejection actually. Paired with the smile that’s spread across Bucky’s face beneath the wad of napkins, Steve would even hazard to guess this guy is _happy_ about this.

Oh _thank god._

“Oh, so getting accidentally assaulted is a part of your daily life then?” Steve asks, feeling the smile to match Bucky’s spread across his face.

“What can I say, I’ve got an assaultable face. And it’s clearly not assaulted even half as much as it looks like you hit people with everything _but_ your fists.”  

 

The thing about soulmates is this: They’re the one person in the world that you’re destined to love. They’re two halves of a whole, bound by magic or science or _something._

None of this means you’re going to fall _in_ love with them. There’s plenty of platonic soulmates in the world because the world gifts people the person that’s going to be most important to them in all sorts of ways. It doesn’t mean you’ll know _anything_ about them when they crash into your life. Hell, it doesn’t even mean you’re going to _like_ them at first. It’s the warning every kid gets when they start asking about it. Hollywood has dozens of rom-coms featuring plucky protagonists who meet their soulmate, hate them immediately, and then have to learn to love the person underneath.

It means most people take it slow. Or at least _try to._ It means that a month in Steve can’t help but be surprised by how much it feels like he’s always _known_ Bucky.

It means that Steve surprises himself when they both have days off that align perfectly and four episodes into a frankly awful netflix reboot he finds himself leaning over to kiss Bucky senseless over the laugh track.

There’s a pause, a moment where Steve waits and his stomach drops and he’s convinced he’s just thrown himself face first into something Bucky doesn’t want.

And then Bucky kisses back and the world catches up.

 

Nearly three months into dating Bucky takes Steve home to meet his parents.

“Listen, Steve, they’re a little bit _much.”_ Bucky warns him on the doorstep, his hand heavy and warm on Steve’s shoulder. Steve has a sudden urge to kiss him and reassure him that there’s no way he won’t like the entire Barnes brood.

So that’s exactly what he does.

“Hey, I like you don’t I?”

“No way, I never woulda guessed.” Bucky interjects, and Steve for the purpose of getting through this and into the Barnes house ignores him.

“So why wouldn’t I like them?”

“Because we’re loud and nosy and there’s roughly a hundred of us?”

“Eh, you’ve met my friends. I can handle loud and nosy. Now take me inside Barnes. Unless you’re worried _I’ll_ be the embarrassing one.” Steve is absolutely and entirely sure that’s not what Bucky’s worried about, but it does exactly what Steve wants it to do because moments later he’s in the Barnes family home.

 

When they step through the door a teen girl jumps back abruptly, turning the most innocent expression that Steve has ever seen on them.

“I wasn’t doing _anything.”_ She says.

“Uh-huh,” Bucky says, eyebrows raised in a way that can only be described as disbelieving, “Alice, Steve. Steve, Alice. Becca put you up to it right?”

“She’s too busy with the baby to spy.” Alice says, then fixes her gaze on Steve, “You’re _way_ too cute for Bucky.” She says, earning an indignant noise from Bucky, and then she’s disappearing with a shout of _“BECCA HE’S HERE!”_ that makes Steve wince and think he just might need to take out his hearing aid for this whole experience.

“I told you they were a lot.” Bucky says like he’s just proved some sort of point, and then Steve’s being dragged a little further into the house.

It’s all a little bit of a whirlwind after that. At some point someone says _“Hold this!”_ and hands him a baby before running further into the house after a small child, then another woman shoves her hand into Steve’s and pronounces themself as “Bucky’s favorite, Hannah,” and then, at some point, Steve ends up pushed into a chair at a kitchen island, still holding a baby.

“Ma, Steve. Steve, Ma.” Bucky says as he edges around the woman standing by the stove and dips a spoon into the pot there.

 _"James Buchanan,”_ Bucky’s ma says and Bucky snaps his hands up and steps away, the same innocent expression on his face that Steve had seen only minutes before on one of his sister’s.

“Your foods just so good Ma, I couldn’t help myself.”

“Mmmhmm, sure.” She says and swats at Bucky’s hand when it comes closer to the pot again, then she’s turning the full force of her attention on Steve. “Steve! It’s so good to finally meet you. We were starting to think you might never turn up.”

_“Ma!”_

“Well, it did take quite a while and then you went and hid him away for months sweetheart.”

“I had _reasons._ A Barnes family dinner isn’t exactly for the faint of heart.” Bucky says and Mrs. Barnes rolls her eyes with a force that Steve had thought before meeting Bucky was only reserved for teenagers.

 _So much_ about Bucky makes sense now.

 

In the end, Steve leaves the Barnes house exhausted and full of food with three tupperware containers full of leftovers.

“They liked you.” Bucky says, one arm around Steve as the subway rattles its way towards Steve’s stop.

“That’s good, cause I liked them too.” Steve says, leaning into Bucky heavily. Three more stops, a two block walk and then three flights of stairs and he’ll get to crash face first into his bed and sleep for roughly ten hours. _He can’t wait._

“Yeah?” There’s just enough doubt that Steve pulls back from his spot firmly faceplanted in Bucky’s chest to look at him.

“Of course I did. They’re your family, how could I _not_ like them?”

“You like ‘em more than me?” Bucky asks, though he’s smiling now, his arm squeezing tight around Steve.

“Of course I do. I’m gonna trade you in for the lot of ‘em.”

“Sounds like a pretty smart decision. Good thing for me you’re not great at making those.”

“You’re just as much of a jerk as I always thought you’d be, y’know?” Steve asks, not even close to meaning it.

“Yep. Good thing for me you’re stuck with me.”

“I’m taking it up with the universe.”

“Oh goodie, we’re fighting the whole universe now.”

“Damn right we-” Steve never does finish that sentence, mostly because Bucky chooses that exact moment to kiss him right there on the subway.

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on [tumblr!](http://stevergrsno.tumblr.com/tagged/my-writing)


End file.
